A better check_http – the technical background
The check_http plugin from Monitoring-Plugins.org has been a cornerstone of active checks in Nagios-based monitoring systems like Checkmk, Icinga,…
Next generation MS SQL monitoring with Checkmk
Presenting the upgraded MS SQL monitoring plug-in with Checkmk 2.3 with improved performance, flexibility, and robustness in monitoring databases.
Build a Network Layer Visualization with Checkmk
Learn how to use the NVDTC plug-in to create a network topology of your infrastructure with Checkmk.
End-to-End Monitoring with Checkmk: Configuring Robotmk
Monitoring applications end-to-end is as vast as essential in infrastructure monitoring. We discussed what it is in the previous part, titled…
Discover all features of Checkmk 2.3
Checkmk 2.3 is here. With the new release, we are not only introducing a new add-on with Synthetic Monitoring, but many other features. You can find…
How to monitor servers with broken TLS in Checkmk 2.3
With Checkmk 2.3.0 we bumped the version of OpenSSL from 1.1 to 3.0. This means much stricter defaults regarding security relevant ciphers, handshake…
SysAdmin Survey 2024: The Consolidation of IT Tools
How many IT tools are used, and what is their value? Is there a need to consolidate them? This and more questions were asked in our yearly survey for…
Monitoring management boards with Checkmk
Information from management boards is critical for holistic monitoring of a server to detect hardware failures and more. In this blog you will learn…
These operating systems are supported by Checkmk
More reliability in planning future updates of Checkmk was a major reason why we introduced a policy with Checkmk 2.0 regarding which operating…
Monitor GKE Autopilot with Checkmk
As an Autopilot partner, Checkmk is part of an exclusive group of Google partners that offer privileged partner workloads for GKE Autopilot. Checkmk…
Checkmk – our road to ARM support
The ARM platform is gaining a foothold in the server market and is here to stay. Thus, we want to share our plans around ARM support in Checkmk.
Air quality monitoring with Checkmk
At the Checkmk Conference #9 we monitored the air quality at the Venue. Check out how we did it and how you can monitor the air quality.
GitHub, Pull Requests and Your Code in Checkmk
Code contributions to Checkmk are an important part of our cooperation with the community. To make the process more efficient for both sides, we have…
Deploy and run Checkmk in your Azure or AWS tenant
Starting today, the Cloud Edition is available on the AWS and Azure Marketplaces as an AMI and Virtual Machine, respectively. These pre-configured and…
Checkmk 2.2: Monitoring for Cloud and Hybrid IT
With Checkmk 2.2, we not only extend Checkmk as a platform for hybrid IT monitoring, but also introduce a new product edition, Checkmk Cloud Edition.…
This is Checkmk Cloud
The Checkmk family is growing – say hello to its newest member, Checkmk Cloud. Checkmk Cloud is a state-of-the-art monitoring platform for cloud and…
Building a dashboard for vSphere monitoring in Checkmk
Checkmk provides a wide range of predefined dashboards, but it also supports customization. Learn how to build a dashboard for VMware vSphere in…
Survey: The challenges of disruptive tech for IT experts
The implementation of innovation in the field of IT infrastructure is a complex process and requires IT professionals to constantly acquire new…
How to become your own Certificate Authority
Regardless of whether you want to design a test environment that is as close to reality as possible, or want to (better) secure Checkmk in the…
What is Kubernetes?
Kubernetes consists of many objects and individual functions that interact with each other, making it a multi-layered and complex technology. Learn…
A practical guide to Kubernetes
Kubernetes is the de-facto standard for container orchestration and the most hip technology currently around. All managers, IT consultants and newer…
Monitoring Oracle databases with Checkmk
Monitor you Oracle Database with Checkmk. Besides the Oracle application performance, Checkmk will keep an eye or your OS, your hardware and can also…
Monitoring Oracle Solaris with Checkmk
With Checkmk you can reliably monitor all Unix derivatives and Unix-like systems
Raw vs. Enterprise: When is it advisable to switch?
This blog shows the most important differences between Checkmk Raw and Checkmk Enterprise and helps you to decide whether it makes sense for you to…
Open observability: How to integrate Datadog in Checkmk
Integrate Monitors and events from Datadog in Checkmk to save time and find root causes faster than ever before. This blog shows how it is done.
Secure your monitoring: Security best practices for Checkmk
Read how to configure your monitoring to be as secure as possible. You can implement most of the points in a few simple steps.
Linux plug-ins for server, container, and file monitoring
In this blog post we will see how to configure more Linux plug-ins to monitor servers, containers, and files
Monitoring VMware with Checkmk
Read how to monitor all aspects of your VMware environment with Checkmk in just a few minutes.
Naming concepts: DNS names will make your life easier
This blog will show you key elements and tips on how to implement naming policies
Why SNMP monitoring for Linux is not recommended
Even if Linux itself hasn’t abandoned SNMP as Windows did, the sheer number of alternatives make SNMP monitoring on it not recommended.
How to configure SNMP on Linux
Configuring SNMP on Linux isn’t a daunting task. Most of it comprises of setting up SNMPD, the daemon, and learning a handful of commands, the tools.…
Monitoring file servers with Checkmk
This tutorials shows you, how to set up a monitoring for your file servers with Checkmk in just a few minutes
Checkmk 2.1 hybrid IT infrastructure monitoring at its best
The best for both worlds: With the all new Checkmk 2.1, we are laying the foundation for hybrid IT infrastructure monitoring at its best. It brings…
Checkmk Conference #8: Big get-together after three years
After three years, the time had come: Checkmk Conference #8 could finally take place again on site in Munich – and it was overwhelming: More than 300…
Monitoring web servers with Checkmk
Read how to monitor all aspects of your web server with Checkmk in just a few minutes.
Sending Checkmk notifications via Telegram
In this article you will learn how to use the popular messaging platform Telegram for sending notifications from Checkmk.
Minimizing false positive monitoring alerts with Checkmk
Good IT monitoring stands and falls with its precision. It must inform you at the right time when something is wrong. But similar to statistics, we…
Networks in 2022: First steps on an important journey
In 2022 software development in distributed IT is more important than ever before. Network experts have to ensure that networks support a broader…
Automatically detecting log4j vulnerabilities in your IT
The zero-day exploit Log4Shell endangers numerous servers in companies, being a critical vulnerability in the widely used Java library Log4j. Finding…
Checkmk Partner Day 2021: First insights into Checkmk 2.1
Over the past two years, we have all gained a lot of experience with virtual events, and have also become somewhat tired of them. We were therefore…
The hidden cost of false positive alerts
As explained in the previous article, most IT operations teams err on the side of caution when it comes to alerting. In other words, they are…
Dealing with false alerts in monitoring
In statistics, we must always deal with two types of errors, typically referred to as ‘Type I’ and ‘Type II’. A Type I error is, in statisticians’…
IT Ops Trends 2021
The global pandemic forced organizations to drastically change the way they work and to quickly implement new procedures. Changing government policies…
Distributed Monitoring: Connecting remote sites in Checkmk
Distributed monitoring with Checkmk consists of a central site and at least one remote site. The structure of such a distributed monitoring,…
Happy 22nd SysAdmin Appreciation Day!
Do you remember the last time your VPN didn’t work or your internal collaboration tool was not accessible? You don’t? It’s not just a magical stroke…
#SysAdmin Day Meet a SysAdmin: Louis
It's SysAdmin Appreciation Day tomorrow (hint: this is a subtle reminder for you to think of a last-minute surprise for your favorite SysAdmin 😉), and…
Checkmk Conference #7, Day 2 – A closer look at Checkmk 2.1
After having spoken about the current status of Checkmk 2.0 on the first day of Checkmk Conference #7, the second day of the event focused on the…
Checkmk Conference #7: Checkmk 2.0, and a look into the past
On the first day of the Checkmk Conference #7, everything revolved – as is traditional – around the latest Checkmk version. Checkmk 2.0, which was…
Deploying Checkmk in Kubernetes
Setting up Checkmk in Kubernetes is easy with the recent introduction of the Checkmk container registry and the sample manifests for deployment.…
Making Checkmk available in your language
Throughout the years, we’ve seen Checkmk being used in various locations across the globe. With this popularity comes people bringing in a diversity…
Improve the communication of alerts with SIGNL4
There is a critical incident in production or IT. Several services have been impacted, business and customers are seriously affected. Luckily, with…
Checkmk 2.0 development: the making of the new UX
Last March we released the new Checkmk Version 2.0, which set a new record for the number of improvements implemented in a major release. Log in to…
Checkmk Conference #7: A look behind the scenes
At the beginning of this year we had to ask ourselves the question: Following 2020, should the Checkmk Conference #7 once again be a purely online…
Monitoring OpenText solutions with Checkmk
OpenText administration has always been a challenging and time-consuming task, and it often does not perform as well as it should, mostly because of a…
The easiest way to do print server monitoring
Time and again, organizations underestimate the importance of monitoring their print servers. Network printers or multifunction devices usually have…
How to do VPN Server Monitoring
Over the course of the Corona pandemic, many organizations have needed to find a way to share company data confidentially with employees in their home…
Mail server monitoring: How to monitor mail servers for optimal performance
Despite competition from messenger apps, email is still one of the most important means of business communication. For this reason alone, the…
Complete Guide to Cloud Server Monitoring
These days, most organizations rely on a hybrid IT infrastructure and use the services of public cloud providers in addition to their own on-premises…
Proxmox monitoring: How to do it efficiently with Checkmk
Proxmox is a total server visualization open-source Linux-based platform. The software blends two virtualization technologies for operating virtual…
Monitoring of different server types: SQL servers
In the age of the IoT (Internet of Things) and big data, databases play an important role and are crucial for the success of an organization. As a…
Everything you need to know about file server monitoring
File server monitoring is crucial for organizations everywhere. It allows admins to ensure that the servers and files are available and are working…
The Complete Guide to NAS Server Monitoring
NAS servers are popular because of their user-friendliness and are used in organisations of all sizes. For this reason, you should definitely consider…
Network Monitoring with Checkmk 2.0: 3 rules to rule them all
Monitoring networks, especially large environments, can quickly become very demanding. With the right tools, however, you can keep the effort low.…
Setting up Checkmk as an alert source in iLert
In this blogpost I will explain how to set up your Checkmk monitoring as an alert source in iLert and then take your first steps in iLert. For this I…
Improve your uptime with Checkmk and iLert
IT monitoring is primarily all about being able to reliably detect critical conditions in IT systems. However, this is only the first step, after…
The path to the best HP monitoring
In many businesses it would be hard to imagine IT without the diverse range of products from HPE and HP. In order to guarantee the smooth operation of…
Checkmk 2.0: A faster IT monitoring, with a new look
The wait is over – Checkmk 2.0 is the latest full version of our IT monitoring solution. For this release we have not only added numerous functions,…
Checkmk 2.0: Modern, intuitive and individual – the new UX
One of our main goals with Checkmk 2.0 is to improve usability both for new users and experts. To achieve this, we have not only completely redesigned…
Checkmk 2.0: Cloud and Containers – monitoring of modern IT
Last year we released the first version of the Prometheus integration in Checkmk as a part of Feature Pack 2 for Checkmk 1.6 (1.6.0p12). Prometheus is…
Checkmk 2.0: Deeper insights for your network monitoring
From Checkmk 2.0 onwards, it will be possible to gain deeper insights into your network thanks to the deep integration of ntop's network flow…
Checkmk 2.0: New APIs for automation and extensibility
With Checkmk 2.0, we are also pushing the automation of Checkmk further and at the same time making it easier to develop your own plug-ins for…
Checkmk 2.0: The Core gets more power under the hood
In this blog post, we present the various innovations in Checkmk 2.0, which above all significantly improve the performance of the monitoring. For…
Checkmk 2.0: Powerful monitoring of your IT infrastructure
With Checkmk 2.0, we are also expanding the range what can be monitored with Checkmk off-the-shelf - be it by means of new plug-ins or the expansion…
Migrating check plug-ins to Checkmk 2.0
There are now nearly 2,000 official check plug-ins available as extensions for IT monitoring with Checkmk. However, the Check API is the same as it…
A simple migration from Nagios to Checkmk
There are many reasons for switching from Nagios to another monitoring tool. The IT consultants at tribe29 have already assisted several organizations…
Why you should replace Nagios right now
When it was launched in 1999 under the name NetSaint, Nagios was the first open-source tool to unify a wide range of essential mechanisms for the…
Meet tribe29 at FOSDEM 2021!
Some of you might remember meeting the tribe29 team live at last year’s FOSDEM. We were very honored to be part of and were overwhelmed by the…
E2E-Monitoring: Make sure your applications are running
With infrastructure or system monitoring, an IT team can keep an eye on the health of its IT infrastructure at all times. In this way, problems can be…
Announcing Checkmk 2.0 and its Innovation Release
For many months our development team has been pushing to deliver the next full version of our IT monitoring solution. In doing so, we have reworked…
Splunk Monitoring with Checkmk
Splunk is more than just a highly efficient search engine. The cross-platform solution captures, indexes, and correlates real-time data from different…
Happy SysAdmin Appreciation Day!
Happy 21st SysAdmin Day to all SysAdmins who patiently support our organizations in our IT concerns! Every last Friday of July, the global sysadmin…
Sysadmin Career Trends 2020
IT has been going through fundamental changes in the last few years, with the DevOps movement and many organizations pushing containerization and…
#SysAdminDay Get to know a SysAdmin: Robert
It's SysAdmin Appreciation Day today and we have prepared some content and activities involving the SysAdmin community!
#SysAdminDay Get to know a Sysadmin: Neeloj
It's SysAdmin Appreciation Day tomorrow (hint: this is a subtle reminder for you to think of a last-minute surprise for your favorite SysAdmin 😉), and…
#SysAdminDay Get to know a Sysadmin: Andreas
It's SysAdmin Appreciation Day tomorrow (hint: this is a subtle reminder for you to think of a last-minute surprise for your favorite SysAdmin 😉), and…
Monitoring with SNMP: No end in sight
In the blog post ‘Network monitoring with SNMP: Stories from hell’ we presented some problems that occur in SNMP monitoring which are often the result…
Monitoring with SNMP: Troubleshooting in God Mode
Network monitoring with SNMP does not always work smoothly. This is often due to the fact that many manufacturers implement the SNMP protocol rather…
Monitoring with SNMP: Stories from hell
Those who monitor their network environment with SNMP benefit from the fact that many manufacturers support the Simple Network Management Protocol on…
Forecasting metrics - A look into the future
Do I have enough filesystem space left for the coming months? How will the CPU load on my server develop in the future?
As soon as you have a proper…
Some insights into the monitoring community
Our very first tribe29 community call took place a few weeks ago, and we are glad that so many of you either joined directly or watched the live…
Monitoring Elasticsearch with Checkmk
Whether on your own machines or in the cloud: applications generate huge amounts of data – every day, every hour and every minute. We're no longer…
VPN monitoring: a problem-free connection to the home office
The Coronavirus has triggered a true digitalization offensive around the world. Since its outbreak, numerous companies have switched to home office…
Checkmk Conference #6: Challenge accepted
Is it possible to organize an online conference with almost 300 participants in less than 4 weeks? Can a successful traditional event be moved from a…
Checkmk Conference #6: The Road to 2.0 and beyond
The last session at the Checkmk Conference #6 once again belonged to Lars Michelsen, who, as our chief developer, gave the participants an overview of…
Checkmk Conference #6: Better testing and support
At the Checkmk Conference #6 Marcel Schulte shared best practices for setting up your own Checkmk staging environment. We recommend with the Gold…
Feature Pack 2 is out and comes with Prometheus-integration
On the way to the finalization of Checkmk 2.0 we are proud to be able to present the next intermediate step: the Feature Pack 2. With the Feature…
Checkmk Conference #6: Welcome to the API world!
When we launch Checkmk 2.0, it will also herald the end of the current Web-API. With the new version we will be introducing our new REST-API, which…
Checkmk Conference #6: Integrating Prometheus
In addition to integrating ntop’s network flow monitoring, we also told you at Checkmk Conference #6 about the new integration with Prometheus, an…
Checkmk Conference #6: This is the new User Experience
We mentioned it again and again in the latest blog posts regarding our Checkmk Conference #6: We want to make it easier for you to use Checkmk. This…
Checkmk Conference #6: The Checkmk Community
Interaction with our community is essential for Checkmk. We can only make Checkmk better as a monitoring solution with your feedback. The central…
Checkmk Conference #6: Best Practices for the Windows Agent
Windows is regaining popularity in the server world. Therefore, a good monitoring will also mean that it can handle Windows well. With our own agent…
Checkmk Conference #6: Network Flow Monitoring with ntop
Our Checkmk solution originated from the open source community, so we see it as our duty to maintain and promote this philosophy. We are therefore…
Checkmk Conference #6: An insight into the development
At our Checkmk Conference #6, our chief developer Lars Michelsen told you about the projects our development team is currently working on, and what we…
Checkmk Conference #6: Community feeling in a virtual Space
Due to the coronavirus Checkmk Conference #6 has taken place as a completely online event. Over 250 participants proved that it was a success.
Our new release planning: The first feature pack is born
After having announced our new plan for publishing Checkmk releases we can now deliver our first Feature Pack as part of the patch release 1.6.09p.
Monitoring your network: Four rules to rule them all
Introduction on how to easily setup a holistic network and switch port monitoring without having to spend hours configuring your monitoring.
Meet tribe29 at FOSDEM on Feb 1st
Warm welcome to the year 2020. We are excited about the upcoming year and have made ambitious plans for the next few months. One absolute priority for…
Introducing the Checkmk Community Forum
For years we have taken advantage of the simplicity and convenience of mailing lists to stay connected with the community. Our community has grown so…
SNMP: A Necessary Evil
How are the switches and routers doing in your network? Are the NAS appliances still up? What's the speed of a particular interface? Is the…
Report from the Checkmk Conference #5
From April 28-30th the fifth Checkmk conference took place. Read more about it in this short report from Heike.
Linux Swap Monitoring: Top Insights from Checkmk
Swap monitoring for Linux servers is more than just a simple threshold for used RAM. But what values should you monitor and what is the right…
Agentless monitoring - it's not what you think
Agent vs. agentless monitoring is an interesting topic to debate, so in this article we're going to explore one of the grey areas of IT monitoring..
Seven check plug-ins for Linux server monitoring
In this blog post we're going to introduce seven check plug-ins that come in handy to sysadmins when it comes to Linux server monitoring.
Building custom dashboards for vSphere monitoring
Checkmk comes with a powerful dashboard builder. Ok, getting started could be easier, but once you have build your first dashboard, you will have…
